Japan Trip 2013 – Akihabara P1

So last year right after finishing university, my friends and I decided to go to Japan for our graduation trip. It was a blast and not only did we visit many new places, but it was also when I started down the road of figure collecting journey. This summer, just a bit over a year later, me and two other friends decided to return once again for a two week vacation!

Last time, we had planned out the entire first week and a half to make sure we had a schedule and would be able to visit all the good tourist spots. This time around, we said “screw it” and went in with no plan. Well, almost no plan ; 3 For me, after a year of learning about figure collecting, I had a plan, and that plan was to conqueor Akihabara. I had four objectives:
1) Complete my TYPE-MOON collection by hunting down the remainder of my wishlist
2) Complete my Gundam collection that I didn’t finish last year due to size limitations
3) Clean up the remainder of my random wishlist of impulse wants
4) Journey into the world of Dollfie Dreams and come back with a completed custom Arcueid doll

In the end, I was actually unable to completed any of those, but I did make good progress (except for the Gundam one) and had tons of fun. The next few blog posts will be a pictoral story telling of my two week trip to the Land of the Rising Sun, then finishing off with the obligatory loot blog post. There will also be a bonus, updated Akihabara Shopping Map with pictures of all stores (inside and out), but I digress.

This time around, not only did I go prepared with a proper Sony DSC-RX100 camera but I also created a Flickr account for photo uploading (better than crappy Facebook quality). Thus, instead of spamming each post with all the pics, I will include some of the more interesting pics and let you explore the rest on Flickr ^_^

So of the two weeks we were in Japan, I spent an entire 8 days in the Holy Land, aka Akihabara. What was there to do in Akihabara? Shopping of course! Last time, when I arrived in Akiba, I was completely overwhelmed by everything and pretty much ran around like an excited kindergartener. Made a bunch of silly newbie buys too and missed a lot of good stores, but not this time around!

Prior to this trip, I spent tons of researching all of Akiba’s good figure/doll stores and mapping them out: http://myfigurecollection.net/blog/8312. This map turned out to be a great starting point and was updated and corrected throughout the trip. Intending to turn my experience into a shopping guide, I also spent a lot of time recording down details of each store as well as (secretly *gasp*) taking pics of the inside and outsides. This actually lead to me spending more time documenting than actually shopping. Nevertheless, it was fun and I hope it’ll be of help to others in the future ; )

Anyway, back on topic. Because this blog post ISN’T a shopping guide (that will come later), I’ve filtered out many of the more boring store photos here, leaving you with just the interesting trip ones. Enjoy! ^_^

Next, Akiba Cultural Zone, with the Good Smile Cafe and various other stores

Even at the Good Smile Cafe, Kyuubey is watching…

There’s a lineup, got a ticket to wait

Poking around while we kill time

I am mad scientist. ITS SO COOL!!!

My lunch break can’t be this cute!

“Keripo, I don’t know what this is. Why are there so many girls and one guy? And what are we ordering?”

Ask for staff assistance before entering the life-sized Chamber head…

Chamber questions the meaning of this…

The cafe had various other random PVC figures and figma on display, open for photography

GSC’s cash cows:

Neco-Arc Nero, Deka Ver, y u no for sale???

Artwork on display for the two themes of the day: Gargantia and Oreimo:

The food itself was actually pretty meh. Actually, I take that back. It was the worst food I had throughout my entire trip in Japan. Even the onigiri in the morning was better >_< Don’t be deceived by its nice looks!

Onward to Figure-R, which I thought was going to be a big doll store, but turned out not to be so big (had a lot of figures for really good prices though, picked up a http://myfigurecollection.net/item/25218 for 5k)

Random Ironman

Just another man with his birds…

DOLKS store in a back alley on the other side of town… I come back to this later